Press Review

“Azg” carries a statement by the four Armenian members of the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation commission rebutting the accusations that they are dancing to Ankara’s tune. Van Krikorian, Aleksandr Arzumanian, Andranik Migranian and David Hovannisian say they are acting as a “single team” and do not claim to represent Armenians across the world or the government in Yerevan. They write: “The leaders of Armenia have honestly confirmed that they were informed about the process and have rightly announced that this is not an initiative of the [two] governments.” While accepting a “true reconciliation” between the Turks and Armenians is impossible until Ankara recognition of the 1915 genocide, they believe the commission could make it easier for the Turkish people to come to grips with their past. “In our view recognition is a process, not an event.” The statement then concludes: “We expect progress and success, the foundation of which we believe was laid by our first step.”

Meanwhile, the media outcry caused by the setting up of the commission continues. “Hayots Ashkhar,” bitterly opposed to the idea, calls for a legal ban on all reconciliation efforts with Turkey “at the expense of putting the Armenian Genocide in doubt.” The paper wants a special law that would introduce criminal liability for any dialogue with genocide deniers. This, it believes, will scupper Turkish plans to “create a fifth column in Armenia.”

Arzumanian’s involvement in the commission is backed by a senior member of his Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh). Andranik Hovakimian tells “Aravot” that the initiative is in line with the one of the main HHSh tenets: establishment of good relations with all neighboring states. Turning to domestic politics, Hovakimian rules out the former ruling party’s involvement in the impending alliance of several left-wing and nationalist parties unhappy with Robert Kocharian. He says the HHSh has “deep ideological differences” with those parties despite sharing their attitude to the Kocharian administration. “All those forces were supporting Robert Kocharian in 1998,” Hovakimian adds. “They were either in government or by its side. Those who have started to slam him are also responsible for the last three and a half years.”

Tigran Torosian, deputy speaker of the parliament, tells “Golos Armenii” that the leaders of the Miasnutyun bloc must “honestly” declare that the alliance does not exist anymore. “One of the bloc’s parties is in government, while the other is in opposition,” he explains. “Such an alliance is impossible. This situation must be honestly explained to the people.”

“The Armenian Church is separated from the people, not from the state,” editorializes “Hayots Ashkhar.” Just as the government is “detached from ordinary people’s woes,” the church is largely indifferent to how the long-suffering population is getting on. This is the main reason why many Armenians are turning to non-traditional religious “sects.”